Healio News, November 17, 2025; By Octavia Feliciano; Fact checked by Shenaz Bagha
Key take aways:
- Binge drinking, recent alcohol use and susceptibility to drink were associated with digital alcohol marketing.
- Future research should clarify if marketing exposure precedes or follows alcohol-related behaviors.
Among adolescents, exposure to digital alcohol marketing correlated with increased odds of recent alcohol use, binge drinking and susceptibility to drink, according to a systematic review published in Lancet Public Health.
“Doctors should know that what young people see on social media can influence how they think about and use alcohol,” Jon-Patrick Allem, PhD, MA, study senior author and associate professor of social and behavioral sciences at Rutgers School of Public Health, told Healio. “Since this link was found across more than 60,000 people in our study, it shows that online alcohol marketing is a serious public health concern.”
Adolescent and young adult alcohol use has been associated with physical harm, cognitive impairment and a higher risk for developing alcohol use disorder, as supported by previous research cited by Allem and colleagues.
For the purposes of the current study, the researchers defined digital alcohol marketing content as “social media, web-based, or app-based content designed to increase alcohol use through promotional campaigns, branded content, or sponsorships.”
For their systematic review and meta-analysis, Allem and colleagues gathered available data from 31 studies, selecting peer-reviewed studies published between Jan. 1, 2004, and Feb. 1, 2025, from across six online databases.
The meta-analysis included a total of 62,703 participants from 17 countries. Approximately 51.5% were female and 48.5% were male. Most participants, 83.7%, were adolescents aged 11 to 17 years while 16.3% were young adults aged 18 to 25 years.
“This study was the first to combine all available research to measure how much digital alcohol marketing is connected to drinking behavior,” Allem said.
Participants who were exposed to digital alcohol marketing content were more likely to participate in all three of the measured alcohol-related behaviors.
Compared with those not exposed, the young adults and adolescents who encountered alcohol marketing had greater odds of reporting alcohol use within the last 30 days (OR = 1.75; 95% CI, 1.39–2.0), binge drinking (OR = 1.8; 95% CI, 1.22–2.67) and susceptibility to drink among never users (OR = 1.78; 95% CI, 1.29–2.46).
“We were surprised by how consistent the results were, even though the studies we looked at were very different in design,” Allem told Healio.
The researchers acknowledged study limitations, including several factors that affected the generalizability of the results. The review only included studies published in English, and many of the studies lacked demographic detail on participants, limiting subgroup analysis. In addition, most studies included in the analysis relied on self-reported data, which could be subject to recall or attentional bias.
According to Allem and his colleagues, future research should clarify the temporal order of alcohol-related behaviors and exposure to alcohol marketing with longitudinal data.
Allem said he believes their findings highlight the need for stronger international rules on alcohol marketing.
“Current self-regulation by the alcohol industry does not have enough oversight and can easily be avoided by social media users,” Allem said. “Governments and health organizations should make sure that online advertising algorithms are more transparent.”
For more information:
Jon-Patrick Allem, PhD, MA, can be reached at jon.patrick.allem@rutgers.edu.